First of all, the title of this thread is a little (actually, completely) mixed up. I viewed the YouTube video. What happened is that a fight broke out between Yasukuni supporters (right wing) and Yasukuni protesters (left wing). The short video does not make clear who started the fight, or, who first "attacked" who.
QUOTE(Goombaking209 @ Aug 17 2006, 11:56 AM) [snapback]2184290[/snapback]
I had a long live discussion with a japanese elder about these yasukuni shrine visits.
I think you are long overdue for a visit to Yasukuni's own website, you can visit in either English or Japanese. Just Google: Yasukuni, and look for their official homepage. They are completely unrepentant about Japan's wartime actions. They call WWII a glorious war of self defense of Japan. They do not think the war criminals were war criminals, because Tojo Hideki and the other leaders of the time, in Yasukuni's view, were completely correct in their actions. In short, they are not about "the peaceful forgiving of the dead." They are about using the dead for their own need to justify Japan's WWII past.
In the battle of Okinawa, when the government knew the war was lost, they drafted Jr. High school students to go die in Okinawa. Yasukuni does not call these deaths tragic. They call these "glorious sacrafices for Japan's self defense." Adolf Hitler and the Nazis did the same thing, but unlike Yasukuni today, Germans today do not claim these young boys "volunteered." Koreans were also drafted against their will to fight for the Japanese. Their families have demanded Yasukuni remove their names, and Yasukuni has refused.
Yes, as you say, death is serious business, and one should not hold a grudge. But to use the deaths of an entire generation of young men to continue to push a far right wing political agenda that justifies a horrible, useless war and tells lies is just not right.
Perhaps the Germans could build a shrine with Nazi Swastika flags, and include worship of Adolf Hitler along with all the Germans that died in WWII, and tell the Jewish people, "Hey, don't hold a grudge." However, the Germans have completely admitted their mistakes, and reject it all.
In Asia, Japan and Japaense are known as the people that like to make excuses about WWII. Japanese complain about their "irresponsible" leaders (musekinin seijika).
So, because I think you mean well, will you please, please, please, do just one thing before you post one more time about what you "heard" Yasukuni was all about from someone you "heard" say that it was this because they "heard" it was that-- would you please actually go to Yasukuni's own website, and educate yourself about that place?
Many people would greatly appreciate it, especially the poor dead souls that are still held hostage to Japanese right wing politician's right wing agendas. Then maybe they could actually rest in peace when Japan can build a new, real memorial to the dead of WWII that is completely divorced from the political, horrible rightwing, fascist Yasukuni.